18 July 2005

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GEORGE BUSH'S WORLD
DEMOCRACY = FIX THE VOTE
FREEDOM = CENSOR THE INFORMATION

MER - MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 18 July:
So much for real democracy. Even in the supposed 'bastion of freedom', the United States of America, we are all now closer than ever to living in what has to be considered a complicated modern day police-states using pre-fascist techniques. That is what omni-present 'survelliance', unchecked Gulags, 'Patriot Acts', Supreme Court 'stop the vote counting' decisions, torture techniques, legalized 'censorship', CIA covert and black ops, and continual press manipulation are really all about.
On Sunday we learned more of the details behind the growing uneasiness and suspicions. In the U.S. we learned how the Bush Administration has planned and worked strenuously to twist the vote in Iraq, to manipulate and subvert the very 'democracy' it problems. Of course we all suspected as much; now we know far more of the details. And of course these realities are what lie behind the still escalating 'insurgency' against the American occupation. And it's not just in Iraq; this is more and more a continual U.S. policy and strategy that since 9/11 has also been seeping into the homeland as well as with expanded CIA/Pentagon perpetrations abroad. And on the same day, this time in the UK, we also learned that an important book further explaining all the Iraq lies and deceptions from a major insider, no less a former player than the former British Ambassador to the United Nations, is being blocked from publication. This quick AFP report is followed by a story in The Observer on Sunday.

Top British ex-diplomat blasts US invasion of Iraq
By Agence France Presse

07/17/05 "AFP" - - One of Britain's most senior former diplomats has branded the US invasion of Iraq "politically illegitimate" in an incendiary new book that the government has moved to block, a British newspaper reported.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was British ambassador to the United Nations during the run-up to the 2003 invasion, makes the comments in a book entitled "The Cost of War", excerpts of which were quoted in Sunday's The Observer.

UN negotiations "never rose over the level of awkward diversion for the US administration", he charges in an extract published in the paper.

While "honourable decisions" were made to remove former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the opportunities of the post-conflict period were wasted by "poor policy analysis and narrow-minded execution," he charges.

The Observer claims that the book is being held up by Prime Minister Tony Blair's office and the Foreign Office, which it says have asked Greenstock to strike out a number of passages.

Officials are said to have been "deeply shocked" by his candid accounts of talks with Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and of deliberations at the UN Security Council, the paper reports.

Greenstock, who was Blair's special representative to Iraq in the aftermath of the war, has apparently been asked to remove all these sections.

"Some people are really surprised that someone like Sir Jeremy has done this," an unidentified source told the paper.

"In particular the way he has quoted private conversations with the prime minister."

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "Civil service regulations which apply to all members of the diplomatic service require that any retired officials must obtain clearance in respect of any publication in relation to their service.

"Sir Jeremy Greenstock's proposed book is being dealt with under this procedure."

No 10 blocks envoy's book on Iraq

Martin Bright and Peter Beaumont
Sunday July 17, 2005
The Observer

A controversial fly-on-the wall account of the Iraq war by one of Britain's most senior former diplomats has been blocked by Downing Street and the Foreign Office.

Publication of The Costs of War by Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK ambassador to the UN during the build-up to the 2003 war and the Prime Minister's special envoy to Iraq in its aftermath, has been halted. In an extract seen by The Observer, Greenstock describes the American decision to go to war as 'politically illegitimate' and says that UN negotiations 'never rose over the level of awkward diversion for the US administration'. Although he admits that 'honourable decisions' were made to remove the threat of Saddam, the opportunities of the post-conflict period were 'dissipated in poor policy analysis and narrow-minded execution'.

Regarded as a career diplomat of impeccable integrity, during his time in post-invasion Iraq, Greenstock became disillusioned with the Coalition Provisional Authority, led by Paul Bremer. Their relationship had deteriorated by the time Greenstock returned to Britain.

The decision to block the book until Greenstock removes substantial passages will be interpreted as an attempt by ministers to avoid further embarrassing disclosures over the conduct of the war and its aftermath from a highly credible source.

Officials who have seen the book are understood to have been 'deeply shocked' over the way in which Greenstock has quoted widely from 'privileged' private conversations with Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and from the private deliberations of the UN Security Council.

Greenstock has been asked to remove all these sections before the book can be cleared for publication. 'I think some people are really quite surprised that someone like Sir Jeremy has done this,' said one source. 'In particular the way he has quoted private conversations with the Prime Minister.' Greenstock is also thought to be scathing about Bremer and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Greenstock's British publishers, Random House, were remaining tight-lipped but it is thought that the book is almost certain not to be published in the autumn as planned. It was also to be serialised in a British newspaper.

Greenstock, now director of the foreign policy think tank, the Ditchley Foundation, was set to give a series of public appearances, including one at next month's Edinburgh Book Festival. The Foreign Office last night issued a statement: 'Civil Service regulations which apply to all members of the diplomatic service require that any retired official must obtain clearance in respect of any publication relating to their service. Sir Jeremy Greenstock's proposed book is being dealt with under this procedure.'

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